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With the right hardware, you can enjoy all of the media files on your PC--such as your MP3 and WMA audio files, MPEG-1, -2 and -4 videos, Internet radio, JPEG digital photos and other content--on your home entertainment center. One way to do this is by adding a PC to your home theater, which was discussed in the last installment. There are other ways.

Share digital audio throughout the house with hubs such as the Turtle Beach AudioTron AT-100, a recent Editors' Choice. It's a stereo component that fits right in with your CD changer and your multichannel receiver, working with your home network to give your home theater access to Internet radio and the music files stored on your PC's hard drive. The AudioTron has been around since before Wi-Fi took hold, so it'll require a 10BASET network.

But why stop at audio? Media adapters such as the PRISMIQ let you enjoy video, music and photo files, stream Internet radio, and even browse the Web from your home entertainment system. 802.11a/b/g ready, this box sits near your entertainment system and communicates with your home computer network. You can use it to display content from all of the computers on your home network.

Sadly, the super-home-AV-network I envisioned at the beginning of this column isn't possible, but we're getting close. In a matter of years, you'll be able to watch or listen to whatever you want whenever you want to on any display or speaker system in the house. Next, we'll leave AV for a bit and talk about home automation from the comfort of your computer screen.

Joel Durham Jr. is a freelance writer and editor. He is also the gaming columnist for Microsoft's Windows XP Expert Zone, and has written books on building and optimizing PCs, including a forthcoming Dummies title. Joel was the Senior Technical Editor for CNET's Gamecenter, a casualty of the dot-com implosion. He has written hundreds of features, how-to's, news articles, columns and reviews that focus on the technical side of PCs, specializing in multimedia and games. Joel lives in upstate New York with his wife and children.

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About the Author

Joel Durham Jr. has loved computers, technology, and gaming since he was a kid, first enjoying the wonders of the Atari 2600 and later indulging in the fabulous graphics of the Commodore 64. His lust for all things technical drove him to eventually seek employment: he landed a job at Computer Concepts, a Rochester-based PC consulting and repair fir... See Full Bio

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